Now that is good, well spotted, when did you get the idea?
When his Knight came to e5 or were you waiting for it to come to e5.
A beauty.

And I see you have added the names.
For a moment I thought chess had gone all PC.
That's Corner fodder alright.

What I find really distressing and annoying is that EVERY player
has these wee creative moments hidden away in their score books
and I fear they will never see the light of day giving a totally false
impression that it's only 'the good and great' that can play these moves.

This is totally unfair, why should it just be one or two players
that see these games.

I love chess, you love, we all love chess.

(OK some love their grades more than the game, but these guys we pity)

And any chess player who does not chuckle (and admire) that one
needs to remember why they play chess.

Geoff Chandler wrote:Now that is good, well spotted, when did you get the idea?
When his Knight came to e5 or were you waiting for it to come to e5.
A beauty.

And I see you have added the names.
For a moment I thought chess had gone all PC.
That's Corner fodder alright.

Well, that's my club's website. I'll be sure to pass on your praise to the webmaster.

I got the idea when he took with the h-pawn (I thought he'd take with the f-pawn to make sure he avoided that). So I was trying to open the c-file. I thought that if he played Nxd7 then I'd play Rxd7, but I thought he wouldn't recapture because the perpetual would be obvious. He could also play Qxd5 instead of cxd7, which would have won. It was a team match though, and we were 3-0 up, losing one, and the board 1 game with the IM. I thought that with normal play I'd lose, so needing a draw, I'd aim for the perpetual. Nd7 was the only way I could see to have a chance of that.

Unusually, the home team put food on for the match. I wandered off to get some when I played Nd7. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Maybe he was lulled into a false sense of security.

Three cheers for Warley Quinborne. That was my old club as a junior. I thought I recognised the name of your opponent, and checking my old scores, I lost to him in 1983 in the Birmingham Easter Open. J E Crump. Checking the ECF grading site, must be the same guy. My first ever open, and I started on 2/2

And Geoff is right. There are many many wonderful and beautiful traps, swindles and combos played by amateurs that will never see the light of day.

Well, I could only find the obvious wins, Nxd7 or Qxd5. I didn't look beyond those, I thought they'd be enough. I thought that Nxf7 might "work" but was risky, and I thought that it was unnecessary given his advantage. (I think after a lot of exchanges, the pawn gets through.) Something like 29. Nxf7 Kxf7 (29... Kmoves Nd6) 30. Rxd5 Ke7 31. Re1+ etc. or 30... Kf8 doesn't look too pleasant either.

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Maybe I'll see a publisher and get them to take a full page ad out
in Chess and BCM asking for under 2000 player's tricks and traps.

Go for it. Appeal to the mass of the Chess book buying public by creating a book containing combos that were found by players of their own level

Geoff Chandler wrote:Hi. Guys

...you must have one or two in your locker. I have the space to show it.

Ok, if you insist. I don't know how to put up diagrams on this site, so I'll post the scores.

My first one did see the light of day in a couple of magazines, including Chess. However neither magazine can tell you the whole story. I had not played Chess for 5 Years. My return into the Chess World was at the 14th Isle of Man Congress in 2005. Who do I get fed up to in my first game? David Howell . Then they fed me to Parimarjan Negi. Ouch. OK, avoiding a drubbing in this tournament was going to need special measures. Now on the Isle of Man coach trip, they tell you about the Fairy Bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Bridge. I had indeed greeted the faeries, but obviously I needed to take things further and make a little pact with them. So they gave me the positon after Anthony Fox's 35. ...Qxb2 with the digital clock ticking to well below a minute. Anthony has just eaten the poisoned Bishop So I stick another Bishop on him 36. Bd5+!!

However, be warned of pacts with Faeries! On the next day, less than five minutes into the game, I lost a Bishop to a tactic on move 8 I should have resigned against my IM opponent, but was too embarressed to be handing in my result before some of the players had even finished filling in the names on their score sheets.

The second (well you did ask for one from the locker) was from the last round of a Congress where I have nothing to play for at that point except for fun. I humbly present my 34. Nxe5!! which leaves a Rook hanging that can be taken with check, but wins!

Geoff Chandler wrote:Cheers guys.
Both of you mention dropping Queens or a piece before move 10.

I'm sure there is no shortage of blunders for a book. You'd probably need a long series . Chess amateurs seem to like talking about these as much as their winnning combos. Catharsis, or probably that they've got a lot more of them to talk about

What you don't get with those little problem diagrams is the story behind it. They all must have one, although we might not care. Even so, here's the tail of mine. Following on from the tale of the fox, I get drawn against IM Craig Hanley. No shortage of titled players in Port Erin! In the Chess magazine following the tournament, Richard Palliser produced the problem pages entirely based on games from this tournament. Quite a delight to see one of mine in there. Unfortunately, next to it was the postion after my 8. ...Bf5 against Craig. Now I have a cunning plan to avoid players preparing against me. I just forget my own repertoire . I trotted out my first "prepared" 8 moves quickly, but hadn't noted the subtle difference between my move, and what I meant to play, 8. ...Na6. Craig obviously did

Cheers John, perfect. - this one thread is a Corner. (and it will be).

Book idea was half a joke but have had encouragement from here, USA including
contact from people in the trade. And one from Germany asking where they can get it!
(these German lads sometimes never see the funny side.......joke!).

Will give it some consideration, I am dropping The Corner soon.
The 400th one will the last. (11 left). It's ran it's course.

So perhaps a book full of bad moves and traps will be a perfect Swan Song
before I finally go toes up. Whose knows? I do like the title.